I know all of the healing runes are removed in the game.

We have the examples of Ispher and Red Scorpion instantly being fully healed whenever the party is on the main mapboard. (They have more or less unlimited turns in which to recover while 'encamped' or travelling).

So we houseruled that Earth Pact did the same thing - if you can heal by standing still, twice as fast as either Ispher or Red Scorpion, then once you exit a dungeon being fully healed is a snap and follows the example of Ispher and Red Scorpion. And as a skill, it only benefits 1 hero (like a special ability) - furthermore, as skills go Earth Pact is somewhat underpowered anyway.
Fine so far.

However now we have a gold armour item, possibly Red Plate of Kellos, from one of the expansions. This armour has the special ability that if you recover fatigue by through a Rest order then you may also recover 3 wounds (nice, especially with Leadership in the party!)
The problem is, that logically the party could easily fully recover all their wounds each time they leave the dungeon by exerting/resting/exerting/resting while encamped and swapping the Armour back and forth.
This is way overpowered, even for a gold item!

Our temporary solution was that the item would only affect one person, who then had to start the next dungeon/encounter wearing that particular item.

What does everyone else think?

Well, according to RAW they don´t get to place any Rest orders while not in a dungeon or an encounter. This would solve the problem for me, as the item is not working (or better: not trigger-able) during overland travelling/camping. Another RAW point would be that they don´t have any opportunity to spend fatigue outside dungeons/encounters. So, if fatigue is refilled first thing after a dungeon/encounter, then there is again no chance to activate the item.

In can see the logic behind your Earth Pact house rule as well, and since it doesn´t have such a big impact I could live with it.

But if a house rule caused such an imbalancing in the end, I would return to RAW very quickly.

Parathion said:

Red Scorpion can only exchange fatigue for wounds, yet even if she has no fatigue left and only one wound, she recovers completely. Thus implicitly, there is ample opportunity for 'Resting' on the mapboard, and more than once too.

Nonetheless, the first point is a good point. Although implicitly all heroes 'rest' on the mapboard, there are no Rest Orders.

And agreed, if a (relatively rare) house rule causes a silly imbalance we drop it or modify it immediately.

Yea, I think game balance will have to trump realism in this case. Passing the armor all around for a free full party heal after every dungeon/encounter is just broken. I agree with the earth pact house rule, as it requires a skill and only affects the player with that skill. It might be ok to allow the armor to just heal whoever was wearing it at the end of the last encounter, although that already is probably too overpowered, as this could likely be your tank, who has tons of hp and armor, and healing back to full on him is a lot more powerful than healing to full on a squishy like ispher or red scorpion.

Parathion said:

Is this based on an assumption that you cannot place a Rest order if your fatigue is already full? Because I'm pretty sure that's incorrect.

Not that that nullifies any of your other points.

I think it's based on the idea that the party does not place orders or spend fatigue on the map board. They can only do a very few things on the map-boards, such as visit a town, move, restock, go to secret training, or explore a dungeon.

SamVimes said:

Saying that the party does not place orders was his first point; he specifically said this was a separate point. And saying that the party doesn't spend fatigue is totally irrelevant as far as I can tell, because you don't need to spend fatigue in order to heal with the Red Plate of Kellos, you just need to successfully complete a rest order, which you can do even if your fatigue is already full.

Hammerdal said:

Actually it is on Silhouette.
The 'tank' is Karnon with Leadership, so he often 'Rests' Silhouette to recover the 7 fatigue she spent rapid-firing. Her speed is much less useful (and if she needs to she can equip a different armour and the start of her turn) than the rapid-firing, mostly, as there is an Acrobatic Ox-and-Tiger Tattooed Okaluk in the party.

Antistone said:

According to the OP (I did not check the card) you actually have to recover any fatigue via a Rest order to trigger the item in question. So, if you are restored to full fatigue after a dungeon/encounter and don´t have any means to spend fatigue, then you cannot recover fatigue, either via Rest or any other way. Of course you can place Rest orders when full (and when you actually get a turn to declare an action) - these were my points.

It does say you have to restore fatigue, but I don't agree that difference is significant. The rules state that a rest order stays with a hero until "1) the hero takes one or more wounds, or 2) the beginning of the hero's next turn, when it is used to restore the hero's fatigue."

Unless you're prepared to argue that a hero with full fatigue can (and must) keep his rest order through multiple turns instead of discarding it at the start of his turn, I think that makes it pretty clear that "using a rest order to restore your fatigue" describes any situation in which you have a rest order at the start of your turn, whether your current fatigue amount changes or not.

Put another way, your fatigue is still "restored" even if it is already full.

I guess we need the exact wording on the armor card to go any further with this discussion.

And yes, my position is, that if you have full fatigue you never can restore any. You still can place and remove Rest orders, but you can´t trigger anything that is based on actually restoring fatigue, i.e. minimum one.

Parathion said:

Red Plate of Kellos (little blue symbol)
Armor
+3 Armour
If you recover fatigue by resting you may also recover 3 wounds.
Your base speed is reduced to 4.

Not that it matters a lot.

I think my position is that you can either use it or you can't.
If you can 'rest' to recover fatigue between dungeons/encounters then there is no reason why you can't also use fatigue and therefore 'recover/restore' more than once. It is also quite clear from Red Scorpion's special ability that if she is recovering fatigue by 'resting' then she may have to/can do it more than once.

The question really is whether 'resting' is the method of fatigue recovery when on the map board. Logic says that if there is a method, resting is it. The rules are utterly silent.

Ispher and Red Scorpion
Although normally wounds remain when the party returns to
the Terrinoth map after an encounter, dungeon, or the like,
Ispher and Red Scorpion are instantly healed to full wounds
whenever the party returns to the Terrinoth map.

This is a special rule for special heros. It says nothing about how it works in detail or whether this is a consequence of their special ability (although logic tells us that it is). Red Scorpion does not use fatigue to heal on the overland map. At least in this point, the rules are clear.

Regarding restoring fatigue, the rules are clear as well:

3. All heroes are restored to full fatigue.

No mentioning of resting, camping or the like. They are simply restored to full.

As I mentioned in my very first post in this thread, these are all RAW arguments.